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PHILADELPHIA: 

B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1891. 



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iv DEC 9 1891 . . , / 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1891. 



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Copyright, 1891, by J, B. Lippincott Company. 






PITTSBURGH. 



Pittsburgil, the second city of Pennsylvania, 
is built on a narrow strip of land where the Alle- 
gheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the 
Ohio : it extends some 7 or 8 miles up the rivers, 
and 2 or 3 miles do\vn the Ohio. Pittsburgh is by 
rail 444 miles from New York, 354 from Phila- 
delphia, and 468 from Cliicago. The business 
Ijortion of the city is on a plain, less than a mile in 
width, along the banks, while the hills, commanding- 
delightful views, are covered with handsome resi- 
dences. In this region, where the prevailing soft 
shales and sandstones have lieen worn away by the 
rivers to a depth of 500 or 600 feet, the horizontal 
layers of coal are exposed, and access aiforded to 
the coal-seams on the sides of the hills and at the 
bottom of the valleys to an extent elsewhere 
unknown ; the great Pittsburgh coal layer, 8 feet 
thick, like a broad black band extends around the 
city 300 feet above the river. Since the introduc- 
tion of natural gas ( see below ) the f oi-mer sobriquet 
of the ' smoky city ' is a misnomer ; the clearness 
of the atmosphere has given an impetus to archi- 
tecture, and the many new dwellings and business 
houses are really models of beauty and solidity. 
The court-house, costing $2,500,000, is of Quincy 
granite, and is connected with the gaol by a ' bridge 
of sighs. ' The government building cost $1,500,000, 
and there are besides a city hall of white sand- 
stone, a new Exposition Building, and numerous 
churches, among which the large Roman Catholic 
cathedral and Trinity Church { Episcopal ) deserve 
notice. Pittsburgh possesses a good system of 
schools, and is the seat of a Catholic college. Tlie 
Carnegie free library was dedicated in 1890. The 
three rivers are crossed by fifteen bridges, some 
of them monuments of engiricering skill ; and the 



4 PITTSBURG H. 

different parts of the city are also connected by a 
dozen lines of cable, electric, and horse cars. 

Pittsburgh's manufactures include everything 
which can be made of iron, from a 58-ton gun to 
nails and tacks ; steel in its various applications ; 
all descriptions of glass and glassware ; silver and 
nickel-plated ware ; Japan and Britannia ware ; 
pressed tin, brass, bronzes ; earthenware, cracibles, 
tire-pots, bricks ; furniture, wagons, and carriages ; 
brushes, bellows, mechanical supplies of all kinds ; 
natural-gas fittings, tools for oil and gas wells, &c. 
The production of iron and steel in Pittsburgh and 
the vicinity is about one-fifth of the total produc- 
tion in the United States. The city contains 
twenty-one blast-furnaces, which in 1889 produced 
1,293,435 tons of pig-iron (a little less than one- 
seventh of the amount of the whole country), and 
thii-ty-three rolling-mills, twenty-seven of which 
roll steel; their production in 1889 was 1,105,573 
tons of steel, and 638,450 tons of 'rolled iron. Of 
■vvrought-iron pipe 350,000 tons, and of iron and 
steel for structural purposes 65,000 tons were manu- 
factured in 1890. There are forty-nine iron-foun- 
dries, representing a capital of $10,000,000, two 
mills for rolling copper, and a dozen manufactories 
of white lead, lead paint, lead pipe, or shot. Of 
glass-factories there are thirty-four where window- 
glass is made, thirty-seven for flint and lime glass, 
ten for lamp-chimneys, five for green bottle-glass, 
and fifteen for prescription-vials. 

Eight separate companies — with one directing 
head — for manufacturing air-brakes, automatic 
signals, electric light apparatus, and supplying 
heat and light have a combined capital of 
$23,170,000. The incandescent lamp has been 
brought to the greatest state of perfection in this 
city. Since about 1883 natural gas has been 
universally used for domestic and manufacturing 
purposes (see Gas-lighting, Vol. V. p. 105). 
It is obtained fi-om isolated districts a few 
miles in extent, witliin a radius of 20 miles 
from the city. By drilling into the earth from 
twelve to fifteen hundred feet a natural gas — 67 
per cent, of which is methane — rushes from the 
opening with a pressure of four or five hundred 
pounds to the square inch, which is sufficient to 
force it through pipes to the houses and factories 
in the city. The purity of this gas, its great heat- 
ing power, and its cleanliness make it a most excel- 
lent substitute for coal for domestic and manufac- 
turing purposes. Fifteen companies engaged in 



PITTSBURGH. 6 

piping natural gas, most of which comes to 
Pittsburgh, have an aggregate capital stock of 
120,191,000. It is estimated that 7,500,000 cubic 
feet of this gas are daily consumed in the city, and 
that 1200 miles of pipe are required to convey it to 
dwellings, warehouses, stores, factories, mills, &c. 

The position of Pittsburgh on the eastern border 
of the great Mississippi river-basin, and her facili- 
ties for penetrating to every part by river and rail, 
give her great natural advantages for trade, and as 
a dep6t for exchange and trans-shipment of the pro- 
duce that naturally comes to her as a centre. In 
the river business over $9,500,000 are invested. Two 
lines of packets ply on the Monongahela and three 
on the Ohio. Seventy tow-boats and thousands of 
coal-boats, barges, and flats are engaged in the 
coal trade. In 1889 4,000,000 tons of coal were 
sent by river to the southern states, while 16,000,000 
tons more — making altogether about two-tliirds of 
the yearly output of bituminous coal for the entire 
state — were sent away by rail or consumed in 
Pittsburgh itself. In the district there are 15,000 
coke-ovens making 6,000,000 tons of coke. Twelve 
district railroads centre here, six of wliich are trunk 
lines. These lines reach out to all points of the 
compass. The immense volume of transcontinental 
business passing through Pittsburgh annually is 
probably excelled by no city except perhaps 
Chicago. Pittsburgh has twenty-seven national 
banks and twenty state banks, with a total capital 
of 114,856,750. The interests of Allegheny City 
(q.v. ; pop. in 1890, 105,287), on the opposite bank 
of the Allegheny River, though it is a separate 
municipality, are in all respects identical with 
those of Pittsburgh. 

History. — In the early history of America the 
site of Pittsburgh was a point of great interest, and 
was familiarly known as the ' Gateway to the 
West.' Here traders, settlers, and adventurers, 
who had worked their way from Philadelphia by 
a chain of forts, congregated, and here llat--boats 
were built which carried them down the Ohio to 
the unknown regions beyond. In 1754 a few Eng- 
lish traders built a stockade at the point, but were 
driven away by the French the following April. 
The latter replaced the stockade by a fort, which, 
in honour of the governor of Canada, they called 
Duquesne. It was near the present outskirts of 
the city that Braddock (q.v.) was surprised in 
1755 ; and on October 15, 1758, General Grant and 
his Hic;hlanders had reached the hill on which the 



6 PITTSBURGH. 

court-house now stands when they were surrounded 
by the Indians and nearly exterminated. The 
following month, however, General Forbes took 
possession of what remained of old Fort Duquesne, 
the French having fled down the Ohio, leaving the 
buildings in ruins. In 1759 the English commenced 
a large and strong fortification, which, in honour 
of the elder Pitt (see Chatham, Earl of), then 
prime-minister, tliey called Fort Pitt. The fort is 
said to have cost the English government £60,000. 
The settlement became a borough in 1804, and in 
1816 the borough was incorporated as the city of 
Pittsburgh. Pop. (1810) 4768; (1840) 21,115; 
(1870) 86,076 (with Birmingham, included soon 
after, 121,799); (1880) 156,389; (1890) 238,617. 



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